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| Conas | |
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rockfenris2005 09:21 am UTC 10/24/10 |
| In reply to: | re: Conas, more things for you to consider... - Conas 01:13 am UTC 10/24/10 |
Ohhhhhhh I've had THE most colourful history on this forum! I remember back in my first year of high school, which was the year 1999, when I first had access to the internet and the first thing I did was search "Meat Loaf" and "Jim Steinman". That's how I found "Dream Pollution" and I immediately thought it was a terrific website, like an experience, like listening to one of the albums and gazing fondly at the cover art. And back then, it had a really awesome section with pictures called "The Gallery of Despair". It's still on the old version of the website on Internet Archives and you should check it out, just to see the artwork. It's a page with 3 of Jim's lyrics, basically, "Everything is permitted", "The future ain't what it used to be" and "Unsettled scores". As I said before, Jim led me to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Musical Theatre so imagine how surprised I was when I saw the announcement that Michael Crawford (My God, the Phantom Himself) starring in "Dance of the Vampires" which was actually going to open on Broadway in April 2002. And I hadn't even heard any of the music at that point. And then 9/11 happened...On the day of 9/11, that's when I began writing my play which I've been working on for almost 10 years now. So, of course, I was hugely excited about "Vampires" and I wanted to go to New York to see it if it was still open in 2003 or 2004. At first, I posted on a message forum at Neverland Hotel then I discovered the Rockman, at the worst possible point, the most turbulent period in Jim history on the web, IMHO. The opening of "Dance of the Vampires" on Broadway when the critics COMPLETELY TRASHED IT (picture it like the big stunt scenes in "Blues Brothers", it was ghastly) and Jim hadn't even turned up. It was a terrible time. That year, in high school, the Principal asked to speak to me and he said "do you want the good news first or the bad news?" And I said "The bad news, please, sir." "Alright, I'm very concerned that you wagged 200 classes this semester, very concerned indeed, but the performance you put on at the Talent Quest is, without a doubt, the most amazing performance I have seen in 25 years. I don't know what to do with you, Ryan.” And I WAS NOT LIKED ON ROCKMAN. I was 16 years old and a loud-mouth, the most emotional teenager I had ever met (haha) and I took everything seriously and there was no subtlety, and anything that possibly could have offended me was pointed out and addressed, and I did it in the most confronting way. And, DESERVEDLY, I went through a gauntlet. Over the years, it quietened down. Jim worked on "Wuthering Heights" and Ray released "The Confidence Man" CD. After "Vampires" folded, Michael Crawford was cast in "The Woman in White" and he had this song called "You can get away with anything" which I thought was hilarious for so many reasons. AND MEAT & JIM ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WERE GOING TO RELEASE A BAT 3. My God (again) and how exciting that would have been for so many of us. But then Jim was sick. Then "Over the top" in New York premiered 2 new songs, "Not allowed to love" from Batman (I still remember the awe I was in when I heard that recording) and "What part of my body hurts the most" which surely must have been from Bat 3, surely??? Then Meat went out on tour in 2005 and premiered another new song "Only when I feel" which was then later played at "Over the Top" but so much better and so much more livelier than Meat's version, IMHO. Then there was the troubling news that Michael Beinhorn would be producing the 3rd Bat album, but never fear, many of us were still under the impression that Meat would still be recording Jim's new material. I mean, surely, he wouldn’t have done anything other (I still believe in him so much back then. And I will always remember us meeting in HMV Melbourne in 2003 when he was promoting CHSIB.) THEN DESMOND became the producer of "Bat 3" and I must admit I found that slightly worrying because I was never a Desmond fan and I didn't think he would be able to interpret the Steinman sound with all the subtlety it needed. I thought it would just be like white wash (And sure enough, it was.) THEN IT WAS ANNOUNCED that there would be NON-STEINMAN TRACKS on the album and I...I WAS FURIOUS and I begged Meat on MLUKFC not to go through with it. It HAD to be with Jim. And we actually FOUGHT over PM, Meat shouting at me and me rebutting every single argument he threw at me. But there was nothing I could do. Pudding said I didn't have a heart when I mentioned this story somewhere on the net before, but I do and my heart was literally ripped out of my body and stomped on and crushed into an oozing slurry just as the album was about to be released. How could Meat have done to this to us & Jim? I don’t care what his excuses were. He should have walked away and not done it. (And I know I will argue with others about this until the end of time and I don’t want to get into it again, PLZ.) But, no, never gotten over it, even though I tried to give TMIL a chance when I listened to it, hoping it might just be good. But no, it was a horrible disappointment, but it's also a lot more listenable than "Hang Cool Teddy Bear". 2007 WAS THE WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE, BAR NONE! It was so horrible. I don't even want to get INTO IT but it was just so, so, so awful, on Rockman, and everywhere else. It picked up in 2008 and 2009, but 2010 is the best state the board has been in since 2006. That was when we had the board that was like MLUKFC and I just remember it being really happy and positive back then. It was an awesome time. I came home from town when the new DVD store had just opened having bought all these bargains, and Jim was blogging, and everybody was buzzing about it on the new forum. If there's a Rockman in paradise, that's what it would be like. And 2010 is coming back around to where we were in 06. So yeah, thought I'd post that... And you are part of the Rockman Legend, Conas, so NEVER STOP POSTING. Ryan. | |
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